Sec. 130701. Findings

499 words·~2 min read·/bill/116/hr/6800/eh/section-130701

A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.

Congress finds the following: Prison, jails, and other confinement facilities in the United States have unique telecommunications needs due to safety and security concerns. Unjust and unreasonable charges for telephone and advanced communications services in confinement facilities negatively impact the safety and security of communities in the United States by damaging relationships between incarcerated persons and their support systems, thereby exacerbating recidivism. The COVID–19 pandemic has greatly intensified these concerns.

Jails and prisons have become epicenters for the spread of the virus, with incarcerated persons concentrated in small, confined spaces and often without access to adequate health care. At Cook County jail alone, hundreds of incarcerated persons and jail staff have tested positive for the virus since its outbreak. To prevent the spread of the virus, many jails and prisons across the country suspended public visitation, leaving confinement facility communications services as the only way that incarcerated persons can stay in touch with their families.

All people in the United States, including anyone who pays for confinement facility communications services, should have access to communications services at charges that are just and reasonable. Unemployment has risen sharply as a result of the COVID–19 pandemic, straining the incomes of millions of Americans and making it even more difficult for families of incarcerated persons to pay the high costs of confinement facility communications services. Certain markets for confinement facility communications services are distorted due to reverse competition, in which the financial interests of the entity making the buying decision (the confinement facility) are aligned with the seller (the provider of confinement facility communications services) and not the consumer (the incarcerated person or a member of his or her family).

This reverse competition occurs because site commission payments to the confinement facility from the provider of confinement facility communications services are the chief criterion many facilities use to select their provider of confinement facility communications services. Charges for confinement facility communications services that have been shown to be unjust and unreasonable are often a result of site commission payments that far exceed the costs incurred by the confinement facility in accommodating these services.

Unjust and unreasonable charges have been assessed for both audio and video services and for both intrastate and interstate communications from confinement facilities. Though Congress enacted emergency legislation to allow free communications in Federal prisons during the pandemic, it does not cover communications to or from anyone incarcerated in State and local prisons or jails. Mrs. Martha Wright-Reed led a campaign for just communications rates for incarcerated people for over a decade.

Mrs. Wright-Reed was the lead plaintiff in Wright v. Corrections Corporation of America, CA No. 00–293

(GK)(D.D.C. 2001). That case ultimately led to the Wright Petition at the Federal Communications Commission, CC Docket No. 96–128 (November 3, 2003). As a grandmother, Mrs. Wright-Reed was forced to choose between purchasing medication and communicating with her incarcerated grandson. Mrs. Wright-Reed passed away on January 18, 2015, before fully realizing her dream of just communications rates for all people.